An information system is formed by various resources such as hardware, software, and a network, and a respective resources function in an organically integrated manner, to meet operation objectives as a system.
Federated Configuration Management Database (FCMDB) has been known as a database (DB) that virtually integrate several kinds of DBs that manage information about the various resources forming an information system.
Referring now to FIG. 24, a concept of such a FCMDB is described. In the example illustrated in FIG. 24, the FCMDB virtually integrates different kinds of DBs such as an configuration information DB, a trouble information DB and change information DB, which form an information system. Therefore, the FCMDB manages the respective resources so as to represent a graph having information about the resources as nodes (CIs: Configuration Items), and relationships between the CIs as edges. In this manner, cross-cutting operations can be performed on the virtually integrated DBs. The installed form of each DB is called a Management Data Repository (MDR).
It is also known that FCMDBs form a distributed structure to improve scalability. Referring now to FIG. 25, the concept of such a distributed FCMDB is described. In the example illustrated in FIG. 25, CI1 through CI3, and the relationships R1 and R2 among the CIs are managed in a distributed manner by FCMDBs in the distributed FCMDB.
Patent Document 1: Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2002-500791
When a search operation is performed by tracing the relationships R in the above described distributed FCMDB, however, a partial search operation needs to be performed repeatedly, and a high-speed search operation may not be performed. That is, the respective CIs and the respective relationships R are registered in the respective FCMDBs placed in a distributed manner in the distributed FCMDB. Therefore, when a search operation is performed by tracing the relationships R, many operations need to be performed across the FCMDBs.
Referring now to FIG. 26, the problem with a search operation in such a distributed FCMDB is described. FIG. 26 is a diagram for explaining a search operation in a distributed FCMDB. A case where the information about CI2 associated with CI1, by R1 and the information about CI3 associated with CI2 by R2 are retrieved from a distributed FCMDB is illustrated in FIG. 26.
In a first partial search operation, the distributed FCMDB searches a FCMDB1 for CI1 in a first partial search operation, and obtains an identification ID of CI1. In a second partial search operation, the distributed FCMDB searches a FCMDB2 for R1 having the identification ID of CI1 as one of a source CI and a target CI connected to both ends of the relationship R, and then obtains the identification ID of CI2 at the other end. In a third partial search operation, the distributed FCMDB further searches a FCMDB3 for R2 having the identification ID of CI2 as one of the source CI and the target CI connected to both ends of the relationship R, and obtains the identification ID of CI3 at the other end. In a fourth partial search operation, the distributed FCMDB searches the FCMDB2 for the information about CI3, using the identification ID of CI3.